Second Ouattara-Macron meeting at the Élysée Palace

At the request of France, Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara met for the second time in less than three months, on 31 August at the Élysée Palace. The two heads of state met face-to-face (as did their wives) for a quarter of an hour in the Palace gardens, before joining their teams for a lunch that also included French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, French ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire Georges Serre, and Gilles Huberson, who will succeed him in mid-September. This graduate of the French military academy of Saint Cyr got along very well with Patrick Achi, the Secretary General of the Ivorian Presidency. Among the topics discussed were the implementation of projects financed by France, including the Abidjan metro, to which France is contributing €1.4 billion, and which is due to be launched in November.